Careers

Avian Protection Plan

Protective Covers

Cantega’s Greenjacket™ product is a long-term solution to wildlife-caused outages in substations. It works by providing a barrier between wildlife and dangerous energized electrical equipment. Its high dielectric rating means it can sustain an electric field but does not conduct electric current.

Wildlife-caused power outages account for nearly 20 per cent of all outages in substations. Until Greenjacket, there were very few products on the market that could reduce these outages. Greenjacket has many features that make it the ideal cover – a high dielectric rating, a resistance to breakdown from ultraviolet radiation, custom-built to fit a vast array of equipment in all shapes and sizes, and can easily be installed and removed in any weather condition.

AltaLink began using protective covers in 2003 when it fitted two substations that had histories of bird-caused outages. AltaLink tracks and describes all outages in a central database, which has allowed it to identify the highest risk substations. AltaLink has outfitted over 60 substations with the cover since 2006. In addition to these existing substations, all new substations will have the covers installed prior to being energized to reduce outages and protect wildlife.